Double Word Score
by rebelrsr
Summary: Carter surprises Kara with more than his Scrabble skills during their Game Night.


Leaning back in her chair, Kara fondly watched Carter rearrange his Scrabble tiles. "You could always forfeit, kid. I won't tease you. Much." She hid her grin with her extra-large soda cup. The one he'd conned her into as they'd left CatCo earlier that afternoon.

"Ha ha." He narrowed his eyes; the resemblance to Cat was uncanny. Kara put the cup down and straightened automatically. Carter noticed. He pointed the tile in his hand at her. "Gotcha!" Still doing a seated victory dance, he used the final "A" in one of Kara's words to spell "irate."

Kara added the eleven points to his total. "Give up," she told him; although, he was actually winning by a small margin.

"Which of us has won the last forty-three games of Scrabble?" Kara scowled as Carter playfully buffed his nails on his shirt. "Or was it forty-four? You bumped the table before I could count the points for 'chutzpah'. The 'z' was on a triple letter score space."

"I tripped!" Kara was often clumsy. Rather than continue the argument, she slapped down her next word. Three measly letters for a whopping six points. So much for cutting into Carter's lead. The kid was a Scrabble shark. Worse than Cat – and that was saying a lot. Cat was ruthless at any game.

Silence descended for the next several turns. Kara used the time to soak up memories of being here, in Cat's penthouse. Of seeing Carter swipe at the unruly curls that always fell over his forehead and the tiny smirk he wore whenever he had a good word to play. She so rarely got to spend time with him now that Cat had found a housekeeper-slash-nanny she trusted to watch Carter in the afternoons.

"Are you ever going to tell Mom?" Carter asked out of the blue.

Kara tilted her head in confusion. "Tell her what?" She rearranged her tiles, trying to find something more point-worthy that "eat". Hmmm. If she used the "m" in "lame" (a word that had lived up to its meaning), she could turn the word into "team" and get a double word score. Pathetic but better. She added eight points to her total.

At this rate, Carter would be out of reach in no time.

He rolled his eyes. The gesture was so clearly the expression of an irritated tween that she grinned. "Don't let your mom see you do that. She'd blame my bad Millennial influence on you."

Carter ignored her teasing. "Are you ever going to tell Mom about your secret." All of Kara's amusement fled.

There was no way Carter could have figured out she was Supergirl. "What secret?" She heard the flutter of panic in the tight, high pitch of her question. "I'm an open book. My sister says I'm the worst liar ever so there's no way I would try to keep a secret from your mom." The words poured out. Kara wanted to slap a hand over her own mouth to stem the tide.

Steady blue eyes gazed across the board. "I've known since the first time I met you," Carter said. "I don't mind. I really like you, Kara."

The panic grew. Alex was going to kill her for sure. It was bad enough that J'onn had had to impersonate Supergirl to confuse Cat. Now Carter had seen through her disguise? "You can't tell anyone!"

"I won't," he said. Kara wasn't reassured despite Carter's sincere expression. "I haven't told Mom yet, have I?"

True. Kara took a deep breath. It was going to be fine. "You really can't tell anyone. People who know…Well, it might put you in danger, and it would kill me if anything happened to you because of me, Carter."

Carter's hand froze over his tiles. "I promise, Kara." He met her eyes again. "I won't do anything to put you in danger, either, because I know you'd try to protect me and Mom. No matter what." He paused as if considering his next words. "Like you did on the train."

Kara put her hand on his where it rested on the tile rack. "I will _always _be there for you and your mom."

She heard his throat work as he swallowed. "Can I…can I see it? The suit?"

Some of the intensity faded. Everyone wanted to see the suit. "Sure." Kara listened to make sure they were really alone before unbuttoning her blouse to expose the crest of the Great House of El.

"Wow!" Carter's cheeks flushed and he wiggled with excitement. "That's so cool!"

Yes, it was. Kara still felt a moment of awe whenever she glimpsed a newsreel or a photo of her in the suit. The same stomach-clenching emotion she'd experienced at seeing the banner with the crest hanging in the Council chamber on a school trip as a child.

"Remember: your lips are sealed," she reminded Carter as she rebuttoned her shirt.

He was grinning even as he made a locking motion in front of his mouth.

Kara realized she was happy he knew. Keeping her identity hidden was so hard, and Carter seemed completely thrilled at figuring it out. "Your mom guessed, too. I managed to convince her she was wrong, though. I don't have to talk to her about it."

"Oh, I didn't mean your Supergirl secret." Carter began laying his tiles on the board. _All _of his tiles.

What was it with the Grant family? Kara watched in horror as he cleared his tile rack and used several letters already on the board as well. "That's not a word!" she insisted.

Carter's grin was pure mischief. "Want to bet?" He picked up Kara's phone and held it out. "Look it up. Go on."

Sensing crushing defeat in her future, Kara unlocked the screen and opened her internet browser. _Ailurophile. Noun. A cat lover._

"I meant: when are you going to tell Mom that you love her?" Carter asked as he stole the scorepad and noted his points.


End file.
